Around the Bases: Pop Culture and Sports Podcast
Charlie and Tim met and became friends while being contestants on the FOX gameshow “We are Family!” Join them as they chat about everything popculture and sports!
Around the Bases: Pop Culture and Sports Podcast
Around the Bases 2.22: Big Brother Drama, MLB Playoff Races, and Graded Comic Treasures
The dog days of summer are in full swing, but the sports world is just heating up as playoff races tighten and football season approaches. Charlie and Tim reunite to break down the dramatic shifts in MLB's playoff picture, where the Mets have suddenly charged back into contention after sweeping the Phillies to cut their division lead to just four games. Young pitching prospects like Nolan McLean have provided an unexpected boost, raising fascinating questions about potential playoff rotations.
Meanwhile, Big Brother continues to deliver strategic drama as veteran player Rachel somehow escapes the block yet again, leading to a discussion about how returning contestants often maintain psychological advantages over newcomers. The hosts dissect recent eliminations and question Vince's puzzling decision not to target Rachel despite a perfect opportunity.
As September looms, talk turns to fantasy football draft strategies and NFL season expectations, with Tim sharing insights from his recent auction-style draft and thoughts on the Chicago Bears' revamped coaching staff under their young offensive-minded head coach.
The episode culminates with a special comic book unboxing segment as Tim reveals the professional grades for his childhood comic collection. From Amazing Spider-Man issues featuring Todd McFarlane's iconic artwork to the first appearances of characters like Cable and Bane, each slab tells a story about collecting foresight and preservation. One particularly touching revelation: Tim's decision to gift his valuable first appearance of Deadpool to a struggling student who overcame significant obstacles.
Whether you're tracking pennant races, strategizing for fantasy drafts, or appreciating the value of collectibles, this episode captures the excitement of late summer as multiple sports seasons converge. What comics or teams are you collecting this season?
#MLBPlayoffs #MetsBaseball #Phillies #BaseballTalk #NolanMcLean #BigBrother #RealityTVDrama #FantasyFootball #NFLKickoff #ChicagoBears #FootballSeason #ComicBookCollecting #AmazingSpiderMan #ToddMcFarlane #FirstAppearance #Deadpool #Cable #Bane #SlabbedComics #PopCulture #Collectibles #LateSummerVibes #SportsTalk #Unboxing #PodcastLife
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Welcome to Around the Bases, the pop culture and sports podcast with your host, charlie Seymour, and I'm Tim Sternberg. Hit it, nick, charlie. What's going on, buddy? How you doing. We're back here, I'm doing great. How are you doing? I'm doing awesome man Living the dream. We're deep in the depths of a very hot summer. So, oh boy, I don't know how it is in Chicago, oh boy.
Speaker 2:I don't know how it is in.
Speaker 1:Chicago 96 was yesterday and today was like 94. And you know, down here, dude, we get that freaking humidity like crazy, so it's like a hundred and million percent humidity. We don't get that Lake breeze that you have, for the Lake Michigan At least it's.
Speaker 2:it's actually been really nice here in the last like handful of days in this whole week. Can't really complain. It's actually been really nice here in the last like handful of days in this whole week. Can't really complain, it's been beautiful.
Speaker 1:I'm feeling bad. I mean, when we were there a month ago it was so beautiful Like, and I know you got.
Speaker 2:you had a hot spell after that, but yeah, right before and right after, so you were such beautiful.
Speaker 1:We did such beautiful weather up there. Yeah, I hope everybody our listeners around the country are staying cool. We'll be happy for this weather come December. Well, for me it doesn't matter, but for most of the country we'll be happy for warm weather. Thinking about it when we're in the depths of the winter in December, so um. So how, how, how is our little guy Dylan doing?
Speaker 2:He's doing great. He's doing great, um and Rosie of course officially. Rosie's also doing great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rosie posted a video on Instagram yesterday I think it was, and it was so cute, oh my God. Yeah, three months Time goes yesterday, I think it was, and it was so cute. Oh my god, yeah, three months, my time goes by pretty. That's crazy, bro, that's crazy. Yeah, um, yeah. So, uh, I we got healthy babies, we have healthy family members and now we have um a pretty healthy show and big brother, you like that transition, was that? Yeah, that was so sorry, um dude, um a drama, so where did we left?
Speaker 2:off. We've had an extra week between the last time, so well, where did we, where did we leave off? Have there been now only one elimination? Because we did it after two ago, right, yeah, so I have them up.
Speaker 1:So I think Jimmy was the last eliminated that we talked about, and then we had Zach, and then we had Riley eliminated. Back to back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have missed two, okay. And we have nominees for the third.
Speaker 1:So let me go over real quick who has been eliminated from the season so far. We have zay, uh, amy, adrian, jimmy, zach and riley. Um I, I am quite surprised. Um I I. I feel like I don't know how you feel. If you play this game hard in the beginning, it's the worst possible strategy to have.
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 1:Jimmy dude, he was like trying to become I've talked about this before. He was literally I could see it the evolution happening where he was literally trying to be a reality character. And he was trying very hard to do that and I guess in some aspects he succeeded because people kind of gravitated towards him. But I don't like that lack of sincerity and yeah, very rehearsed.
Speaker 1:Yes, I feel like I felt like that way with Angela last season, with the whole walking down the stairs and she even admitted after the fact that she rehearsed that whole thing and she was kind of going over in her head. I don't, I don't know, I kind of miss the old rachel is absolutely 100 unrehearsed. When she back in the day said, floaters, grab a breakfast. That's who she is and you could see it now and I I don't care like I know you don't like her and there are people that don't, but she knows how to play this game.
Speaker 1:She knows how to play this game um, yeah, she, she definitely is very manipulative she is very manipulative and she knows how I mean she does all right, she brings the drama without it being rehearsed and she actually just does it like, just because she does like it's not with jimmy, it was like, okay, set up action with rachel, it's just. Action like it's just I'm gonna do it and that's it, and rip the band-aid off. And I mean who? Who did she end up getting out? Who was her ultimate person that she got out of?
Speaker 2:she got out zach zach, no right riley right oh yeah, you know, yeah, her hoh riley went out, yeah yeah, I mean, that wasn't her original target her original ava's hoh that zach went with zach, yeah, I, riley was not her original.
Speaker 1:Uh, um was not.
Speaker 2:Rachel's original target was mickey um yes, and mickey's been a target for a while now, and and this week.
Speaker 1:Uh, did you watch the show last night?
Speaker 2:we did. We are all caught up. So, mickey, what order? You wanted to jump around?
Speaker 1:well, I have just a kind of generalization because we've missed so much, but mickey has won two vetoes. Did she win the veto last week too?
Speaker 2:I think she won the blockbuster last week blockbuster, that's right.
Speaker 1:But this week she won the veto, yes, took herself off the block and which she won the veto.
Speaker 2:Because what was? I don't know what Keanu was doing there. I don't know if you remember, but Vince was about to play his cards and try to get Mickey out with a. It was the one where it's head to head two people and one goes out at a time. So basically, you just don't want to get picked as long as you can. More times you get picked, the more chances you have to lose. So he wanted to go for Mickey right then and there he was clearly about to do it and then keanu called him over keanu leaves. So mickey got a pass there and then ended up being mickey vince at the very end and she won. Why, yeah, I don't know. Odd, she said that she felt v Vince wasn't trying to trick her in that moment and she was right about that, which is weird, vince I think Vince kind of flew too close to the sun burned a lot of people last week.
Speaker 2:I feel like he's trying to just amend everything he's done wrong, which is why, somehow, rachel avoids it again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's play that back. So I remember at the end of the nomination episode he's like Rachel if someone comes off the block, I am looking at you, I am targeting you, dude, and that targeting you Dude.
Speaker 2:You had a perfect opportunity.
Speaker 1:Dude, charlie. This is why players like Rachel win. This is the moment for your resume for the game where you put Rachel's ass on that block. What are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, even him not doing it. Are you that convinced she wouldn't put him up?
Speaker 1:she's totally gonna put him up. But she already said once, she already did it once, the last time she was hoh like and catherine is a nothing burger like, why are you putting? Why, catherine like, what are you doing? I don't really not playing a good game. He is not playing a good game at all like this is a moment I don't care if my, if my ass is in that in the house and I'm head of household. Dude, at that moment I'm putting rachel's butt on the freaking block like why wouldn't you?
Speaker 2:do that well, from a game standpoint for sure I can't believe she's still hanging around you know it's, I do.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you notice this. So when these reality shows bring back these all-stars, these players that their sense, there tends to be sometimes this sense of fanboying, fangirling over these players that, oh my god, I can't believe. I'm playing with rachel riley to the point where you're not actually getting her out of the game and you're letting her. That's why some players win twice like a reality show. I mean, look how far parvati on her second time got through and she won survivor. I don't know if it was her second or third. And and what's his name from um who did the uh, shelter thing? He won twice. I mean what?
Speaker 2:yeah, they're. They can't. They gotta. They gotta snap out of it, wake up and get her out, or they're in trouble.
Speaker 1:The longer she lasts, the worse for them and it gets to the point I don't know how you feel about it, but it gets to the point where that resume starts to over transfer, over. Take the fact that she's already won the game and she's played the game and you can't not not look at that. If you're truly going to be a jury, who's looking right?
Speaker 2:and multiple people have flat out said that if she makes it to the end, it's so impressive they'd have to vote for her exactly. So I really don't know what this was.
Speaker 1:That was a big mistake yeah, he should have, he absolutely. Rachel should have went up in replacement of mickey, although I don't know like, so who? Uh, on the block right now we have amy, kelly and katherine um amy kelly katherine um ava. I'm sorry, ava, kelly and kev. Uh, my call in this moment. You get out ava, because she's a she's a close one to um rachel. I think that's the one to get out. Katherine doesn't have a two anymore with riley gone right, kelly hasn't won anything right, I think ava is the one unless they're truly.
Speaker 2:I mean, kelly has won a ton of things. Granted, she's been up a lot, but she's been winning things. So, if they, I could see her as a second choice too, just because she has a decent resume. So far I could, but I'll say this, and I don't know how you feel.
Speaker 1:I think ava's the target, though, though I don't know how you feel.
Speaker 2:I think abe is the target, though, though I think you're right definitely, and I think kelly's gonna win blockbuster against those two.
Speaker 1:I think she has the skills to win against both of them, so I wouldn't be surprised. It depends on what it is, of course, but uh, I guess we'll find out tonight. Um, oh, so good, big brother. So yeah, we have, uh, uh, riley, who, um, did cause a lot of controversy with the fans. We won't get into that too much, but yeah. And then we have Zach and Jimmy the last three that were eliminated. So it's shaping up to be a hot season, so wait.
Speaker 2:So one other thing to bring up the last handful of seasons. So Riley was eliminated. We haven't talked about that since. Julie, on the outgoing, I texted you this because Rosie and I were both shocked, since, admittedly, we were not original early season Big Brother fans. So apparently she used to do it this way like other shows. But she literally pulled a fast one and when Riley was eliminated in a close vote with Morgan, she made it seem like Morgan was the one who was going home and flipped it on Riley at the last second.
Speaker 1:Did you see Morgan's heart drop?
Speaker 2:You were loving that, so so please.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I do love that. And yes, back in old school big brother days, julie did that a lot and so I've been listening. I I swear I was the last couple of seasons. I'm like I've been waiting for her to do that again sometime at some point. And the fact that she did it on this specific episode perfection. I, I just thought it was great. I I love. I know, as a denour denour like yourself and rosie is like what, the what did she do? That's not right, what's up, but yeah no, I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was that was pretty savage yes, I love savage. Sometimes I mean, come on, you're playing a game, you got to expect the unexpected.
Speaker 2:Ooh, pardon the pun, but yeah, yeah, I mean. So you said that she used to do that occasionally, but we're not wrong. Right in the last handful of seasons she has not done it. She has not done that in a while.
Speaker 1:No, she has seasons. She has not done it. She has not done that in a while. No, she has not. She has not done it at least since 20, at least 2020.
Speaker 2:So my follow up would be do you think that was on purpose?
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't know, um, I don't know if, like she wanted because why do that to morgan, you know what I mean like because really that I don't know, it did it to both of them.
Speaker 2:But, and, cbs, interestingly, you're saying but in that situation, when the end result is you're safe versus not safe, I feel like all you care about is being safe, whereas the other person was like, oh, it's going to be the. They thought they were safe and they're the one going home that is.
Speaker 1:So you think, riley, it was like a real impact for Riley.
Speaker 2:I think probably it was shocking to him as my guest Cause it was shocking to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, yeah, I was like my reaction legitimately, my could see that. Uh, yeah, I was like my reaction, legitimately, my, my reaction when she did that was, yeah, I was happy, I was like I can't, I, I can't help it. I, you know, I, uh, yeah, I, I was excited. Um, oh, did you hear that the thunder is coming down in south florida?
Speaker 2:it's thundering outside I said I was happy.
Speaker 1:Oh, so to the audience as soon as I said that I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I thought you were saying the thunder was coming to the rest of the season.
Speaker 1:Well, apparently so. I mean God is speaking. So yeah, big Brother, we'll keep following. The next time we revisit, I'm sure we'll have two or three more evictions.
Speaker 2:Any predictions for Blockbuster or who Goes Home?
Speaker 1:They haven't played.
Speaker 2:Blockbuster's live right.
Speaker 1:They played Blockbuster live right before the elimination.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you haven't seen that?
Speaker 1:No, I don't know that. I think Kelly's going to win the Blockbuster. I think Ava's going to go home. That's my prediction. If Ava happens to win blockbuster, or Catherine, I think Kelly goes home because Kelly has won so much.
Speaker 2:Will they have enough votes? Will Ava be able to rally the troops? Who would keep Ava? You'd have Ashley and Rachel for sure.
Speaker 1:We'll keep.
Speaker 2:Ava, so she only needs one or two more votes to stay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, it'll be interesting, we'll see. Oh, my goodness gracious. Speaking of we'll see, we'll see in, we'll see in. That's not even a phrase. But speaking of seeing, let's talk some baseball. The New York Metropolitans.
Speaker 2:They revived themselves from the dead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say that we were not doing great and, as we talked previously on this podcast, you know things were not looking great and of late things have kind of turned on the up, which is a good time to do that, especially when facing the Philadelphia Phillies and the first place Philadelphia Phillies who were in the lead what eight games ahead of us? Or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was as many as eight Entering the series. It was seven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what do we do?
Speaker 2:Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep sweep, sweep, we swept them.
Speaker 1:We're now four games out of first place hello definitely doable oh my god, dude, like what.
Speaker 2:29 games to go. That's one game a week. You can easily make that up.
Speaker 1:I'm so scared. Oh, this baseball during september makes me so like, oh, like.
Speaker 2:I'm on the edge of my seat I think, though, as as happy as you are that they got to within four of first, you're also probably pretty happy that they've built a bigger cushion simply to get into the playoffs, as simultaneously, while they swept the phillies, the reds got swept by the dodgers, so the mets are now plus four and a half on that final playoff spot present day I was very happy about that.
Speaker 1:And can we also talk real quick about mclean?
Speaker 2:wow, holy cow he's a young mets pitching prospect who was called up about a month ago and they are three and oh and it's three starts nolan mclean um, and not just him.
Speaker 1:We have a another prospect coming up, starting on friday, I believe tomorrow. Yeah, jonah tongue jonah tongue against the marlins um he. I've been watching him in Syracuse at AAA and very impressive, holy cow.
Speaker 2:The future and the present here at the same time for the Mets.
Speaker 1:Wow Days of future past.
Speaker 2:Clicking at the right time. This is when you want to start playing good ball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is when you want the young ones to kind of come up and uh and do things. Um little shot in the arm yeah, speaking of shots in the arm, let's just real quick talk about the fact that francisco alvarez can't stay healthy for some reason. He got hit by a pitch again yesterday in triple a I saw that that that's the match catcher on rehab assignment yeah, and now you're not supposed to get her in AAA as you're on rehab assignment. My God, he cannot catch a break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one seemed to be minor, though, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm just saying like it's just like he's a magnet for injury.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of comes with the territory of being a catcher. Yeah, it does. I mean, we've talked about this before it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it kind of comes with the territory. Being a catcher? Yeah, it does. I mean, we've talked about this before. It's the hardest position to play in sports, without a doubt. All right, we have to do this too, buddy. Six and a half games, huh, six and a half games, yeah, as I mentioned last time, we probably weren't going to catch the.
Speaker 2:Brewers, we'd have to go on a crazy run. Opportunity was there. They did win the series against Milwaukee three out of five, but they dropped a couple the last couple days. As we speak, the Brewers are losing again. If the Cubs can pull today's game out, shota's on the mound they can drop to what's in five and a half. Big picture from the playoff standpoint they're still plus four and then eight and a half. But big picture from the playoff standpoint they're still plus four and then eight and a half on the red. As I've said, for all the people who are ready to give up on the season and everything's the world's ending, they should still be pretty fine. Magic number for the Cubs to make the playoffs is down to 21.
Speaker 1:They still have plenty.
Speaker 2:They have 29, more than 29, 30 games left, so destiny is well within their hands.
Speaker 1:So and they're well, but well with the reds they're well above 500. Um, and they're doing a great job. So the Mets are four and a half up on the reds for the last spot.
Speaker 2:The Cubs are eight and a half up on the same reds. So as good as I feel about the mats, I feel four and a half four games better about the cut.
Speaker 1:So and I do want to share this too.
Speaker 2:I mean this weekend too, so hopefully I pick up a couple of wins.
Speaker 1:The Rockies were officially, three days ago, declared out of contention.
Speaker 2:I did see that, which honestly they. They started playing a little better and we thought they probably had been out a lot earlier than they were.
Speaker 1:But I do want to say something positive too about the Cubs. The Mets are 72 and 61. The Cubs are 76 and 57. You guys actually have a better record than we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Cubs are four at the first wildcard spot. Yeah. Yeah, impressive, impressive and so we've lost two in a row and you guys have won three in a row.
Speaker 1:That's you know, go, cubs go.
Speaker 2:I mean it was six and a half three days ago, so you see how quick it can change yeah, I'm fine. If the mets can get ahead of the phillies, you guys can have the wild card, that's fine yeah, I mean the phillies just lost their ace for the year, so that's a big loss for them. I know one of our I'm so sad for them.
Speaker 2:Has some Phillies fandom in the family. Nick Testa he was a little upset about the Wheeler news, but Phillies are still a good team. As you know, I love you, nick.
Speaker 1:It should be honestly a pretty great September. All the races are up for grabs, so I love nick testa, but sorry, not sorry, buddy um zach wheeler, of course. Former met um I. I do have a soft spot for wheeler, as long as he's not pitching against my team.
Speaker 2:All right, the only, the only one division that's above six and a half and that's the tigers are up eight and a half on kansas city and that's actually been shaved down the last handful of days because the tigers have lost four in a row and the royals have won two. So I mean they won't catch them. But that goes to show you that there's really only one pretty well sewn up division. I still think the Brewers probably win the Central. That's pretty likely, but I won't say zero.
Speaker 1:And I am pulling for the Blue Jays in the East, in the AL East, and I'm pulling for, not the Astros.
Speaker 2:They're up four and four and a half as well.
Speaker 1:I don't want the Astros to get it. I hope the Mariners can kind of overtake them in the AL West.
Speaker 2:Nobody wants to win that division, both Houston and Seattle are four and six in their last 10.
Speaker 1:So close it's like Seattle's a game and a half out of first place.
Speaker 2:I mean if you're calling the Cubs alive at six and a half Texas, there in third's only six back.
Speaker 1:Six back yes.
Speaker 2:You never know.
Speaker 1:And the athletics. I mean who would have thunk it? I mean who would?
Speaker 2:have thunk it. I mean it's a lot, but still 11 games back is doable. It's crazy. I'm going to say no on them. 11, maybe if they were in second. But the three teams in front of them I'm sure Houston, seattle, texas play enough times head-to-head where someone's going to have to keep winning. Yeah, good point. It's probably pretty tough for them to make that ground up.
Speaker 1:And the Giants are out of it. In the West it's a battle, surprise, surprise, between the Padres and the Dodgers. Padres are two games out of the first place with the Dodgers. Which is closer?
Speaker 2:than I think Dodgers were in second for about 48 hours last week.
Speaker 1:I don't know who I would root for in that situation. I guess I would root for the Padres. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean how you have to look at it here is let's put it out there that, let's say, mets still do well, but can't close the gap on Philly, which wouldn't be anything bad. Who would you rather play? San Diego or LA Because as a wild card, you'll be playing one of them probably or the Cubs.
Speaker 1:I'd rather play the Cubs.
Speaker 2:Then those, those other teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean I, I don't want to, I mean I don't know. Like, I mean if, if I'm going to be without unbiased, I mean I without unbiased. I mean I think the Mets probably have the best chance against the Cubs than the other two teams.
Speaker 2:But Cubs are a game and a half ahead of San Diego.
Speaker 1:Record. Yeah, that's true, that's true, but we've done pretty well against you guys this year.
Speaker 2:But you did, just we played well against the Dodgers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did. I mean, I listen.
Speaker 2:The C Listen. The Cubs and Mets still play again.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you remember that we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's still three games to be decided.
Speaker 1:We'll see how it goes. Yeah, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 2:I think I'd probably want to play the Padres personally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking. Or maybe the Phillies without Wheeler.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't mind playing the Phillies. They're a totally different team without their ace, so I still don't want to play the Dodgers as long as possible.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you what another team.
Speaker 2:I'm not scared of is the Brewers. I mean, we weren't even playing that well and we won another series against them and won the season series, so I'd be fine with them in the second round.
Speaker 1:I just want to avoid la as long as possible.
Speaker 2:Everyone else, I feel like, is fine, I don't blame you. I don't blame you. Um, so we're that dodgers pitching in a short series.
Speaker 1:I know people are getting healthy at the right time well, look, I mean look, at the mets pitching right now. Our pitching is pretty darn good, and I wouldn't have said that I mean with the addition of, of tongue and and uh, with this new guy mclean wow, here's a question for you.
Speaker 2:Would you feel comfortable giving the ball to mclean in a playoff start?
Speaker 1:right now. Yes, 100.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's what I see with him Would you put him in your top three or would you put him as four?
Speaker 1:That I don't.
Speaker 2:I was, I don't know, Like you're probably not putting him top two.
Speaker 1:I'm not putting no, I'm not putting him top two. Three I think is a solid place, three or four, I think would work. I don't know. That's the question right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is he enough to move into three, because you won't use a four in the first round. Maybe the second round you will.
Speaker 1:Good point. Yeah, I'm not sure yet. I need to see a little more data, as you would say, let him take a couple more turns. A couple more outings, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we'll see how he kind of comes of, comes up. I mean, I'm sure, like like me, I feel pretty good giving the ball to sang and peterson right now. I mean those guys are rolling 100.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's your one too, without a doubt.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah so then then it comes down to who would you rather pitch game. Three mania, who pitched great in the playoffs last year, some really good starts veteran or mclean? I think mclean might. I might lean for all.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I mean maybe use it as a swing man in the first round because it's his first experience in a major league playoff game and the pressure. I would probably agree with you that I would feel more comfortable having him in the fourth spot, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a good problem to have, though, right.
Speaker 1:It's not. I was just going to say, yeah, I'm not complaining about that problem at all, um, but yeah. So baseball folks is getting, we're, we're getting, uh, we're getting almost, we're almost at September. We what? Next week is September, so it's that time.
Speaker 2:Monday yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's go. Let's go. Speaking of September, and speaking of that time, what is coming up? The football season, football season. So, dude, you were in some fantasy football drafts yesterday. How did we do Because I'm not doing it this year I did some fantasy football drafts yesterday. How did we do?
Speaker 2:Because I'm not doing it this year. I did have my first draft last night, which is a little earlier than I'm used to having it, but yeah, it went pretty well. It was an auction league, not a regular draft league.
Speaker 1:What is that for someone like me that doesn't know?
Speaker 2:So that's a great question. So a normal draft is a kind of like a snake order. So it goes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and then ten, nine in back, right, an auction draft. Everyone has the ability to get this to every player. So, for example, in a regular draft, if you pick 10, right, you're not going to have a chance at one of the guys who goes top five for sure, like the saquon bark. 10, right, you're not going to have a chance at one of the guys who goes top five for sure, like the Saquon Barclays, the Gibbs. You have no chance to get them because you're picking 10. And in auction style, you keep the order. But the order is just for nominating a player. So if it was your turn to nominate a player, you would say I nominate Josh Allen. So Josh Allen is the player that everyone is bidding on now and everyone has $200 in their auction and it's a bid. So whoever was willing to pay the most money for that player will get him.
Speaker 2:Oh so, all 10 people have a chance at every player every time, so you only get a certain amount of money to bid on during exactly.
Speaker 1:Oh, I like that kind of like how we use draft money in the season for baseball, for example. Exactly like a waiver system, exactly got it wow, I like that idea actually. Yeah think draft is. I always get the bad end of the stick with the snake draft. If you get like the middle of the pack on the snake draft, you're really the worst yeah, middle of the pack on the snake draft, you're really the worst.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really depends on on the league and where you fall. So auctions are an interesting way to to go around that.
Speaker 1:All right, good luck, buddy Good luck. I hope you, I hope you yeah, I decided to take a break from this season of I got a lot of stuff coming up and didn't want to kind of get over involved.
Speaker 2:But I will be watching football.
Speaker 1:So how are the Bears doing?
Speaker 2:they had a pretty good preseason actually pretty, I mean, did I don't want to get too optimistic, but they do have a competent coaching staff for once, which which is.
Speaker 1:Didn't you guys fire your head coach last year?
Speaker 2:They did. And then they brought in the young offensive coordinator from the Lions who kept scoring all those points, all those creative play designs. He is now the Bears coach.
Speaker 1:See, I like the younger coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I like the offensive-minded coach.
Speaker 2:honestly, In today's NFL, you need it. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited. I'm not going to lie. It should be actually fun to watch for once.
Speaker 1:We talk about money ball statistics being huge in baseball. Right, we talk about statistics running the game. Is that the same case in football? Because I don't know, there are a lot of analytics in football. Right, we talk about statistics running the game, is that?
Speaker 2:the same case in football, cause I don't know there are. There are a lot of analytics in football. Yeah, there's obviously less data, there's less games per season, less total plays, but they still do have analytics in football and it's still very prevalent. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Got it, yeah. So I mean, what would your analytics say about the bills chances this year?
Speaker 2:as always.
Speaker 1:I mean the bills are one of the favorites um bills should be a slam dunk playoff team you know, dude, there's not one of the one of the nicest guys in football, in my opinion, is josh allen, without a doubt, and I really want to see this guy get a fucking ring, like I want, not just as a Bills fan, but as just a fan of Josh Allen. I'd like to see him get a ring once at least once.
Speaker 2:He's still very young, so he's got that on his side.
Speaker 1:And they have the making of being a dynasty team. They really do, in my opinion. They have the opportunity. I mean they've been right there.
Speaker 2:They've been one play away a couple seasons, so I think the Bills are definitely one of the strong contenders again.
Speaker 1:We are the Bills. Oh no, that's the wrong song.
Speaker 2:And they just unveiled some new jerseys.
Speaker 1:They did Ice cold, freezing ice cold.
Speaker 2:It's pure white and they got the white, got the white bills, but it probably won't be snowing when they're wearing them. No, and we have a new stadium they're they're introducing this year they probably don't want to blend in with the snow in those jerseys can you imagine?
Speaker 1:where are they?
Speaker 2:josh can't find an open receiver anywhere.
Speaker 1:But those would look good in Florida. I mean, right, you can see them play the Dolphins in those jerseys In Florida, in South Florida. Yeah, so we're rooting for the Bears and the Bills, and in this case, in football, we're not even in the same. We're AFC NFC, so we're good, kind of rooting for those teams.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. As you know, I'm a big josh allen fan, so that's easy I do know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't. It's. It's so funny that you, you, you, you kind of follow the mets and you kind of follow the bills, which is cool for me, you know, as your friend you know, to see that and yeah, I I do follow the cubs. So there is that. And'm not a huge fan, as we know, as we've kind of talked about, but I'll put you in the bear, but you do like the Super Bowl shuffle song.
Speaker 1:I do like the. I say it how many times have I mentioned it on this silly podcast? Oh man, but yeah. So all right, let's football. Football's coming and speaking of stuff to my transitions are really like bad dad jokes, but I'm trying, I'm trying um, you know we we had a week off, so it was just a little rusty next time it'll be better I have something we haven't done in a while, buddy oh, is that what I think it is.
Speaker 1:It is what you think it is. Um there, you would never guess. You know what it is, but you would never guess what's in this giant box is comic books.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna do an unboxing of comic books and are these the ones you sent off to be graded?
Speaker 1:so this is a chicago connection. Back when I was with you at the national that day, I submitted uh, six comics for grading, or five or six, I forget the number. Um and uh, they just came back about. I've been this has been sitting in over a week in my house because I wanted to wait for this moment. Um, and we're gonna find out. This is the first time I've ever I've ever graded comic books and these are the actual comic books I bought as a kid on a newsstand in the 1980s.
Speaker 2:And, for anyone unaware, that just simply means he sent them off to a service that will literally give them a grade one through 10, 10 being immaculate, perfect and basically the higher the grade, the more they're worth.
Speaker 1:Very rare that a comic book will hit at 10.
Speaker 1:Um very rare that that happens, as I'm trying I assume that's with a lot of paper and pages and all that yeah, um, a big part of it is, you know, because just the nature of a comic book, you know, when you get a comic book especially especially back then, because you weren't really I mean, there was value I definitely was a value-oriented collector where I put stuff away. But as a young person you know the one thing you do with a comic book is you read it and when you're reading it you're going to twist the pages and turn the spine and do all that stuff that doesn't grade well with comic books. The spine and do all that stuff that doesn't grade well with comic books.
Speaker 2:So that is kind of um, why a lot of the condition isn't the greatest, but now what's what's considered a good grade? But now it's not like like how low down can it go to still be considered good?
Speaker 1:to be considered. So you have how the grading system works is you have the lowest grade, which is 0.5, which is basically someone who knows the book is really destroyed. Usually the cover's detached from the book, the staples are removed, et cetera. It's like a real mess of a book. And usually people will do that for the golden age books or the books from the 50s just because they look. As you'll see, they look fantastic in a slab, so a lot of people just want it for display. Plus, the slab does prevent the pages from further decaying. As long as you don't keep it in the sun, it does help with the condition of the book. And then you have mid-grade, which is your 5s and 6s, 7s, which a lot of the older golden age books tend to run. But with that type of book from the 50s and 60s that's pretty considered pretty much a high grade. A five or six or seven is considered high because of the age of the book and when grading first started and how long it took to get that graded.
Speaker 1:Um, because grading is a relatively I think like last 20 years or so new thing. Um, and then you have high grades and there are some older books like punish, like spider-man 129, which is the first appearance of the punisher, that some have high graded copies. I think there's even a 9.9. Most comics will, if you want. The highest grade normally possible to 9.8 is considered the highest grade. Um, there are tenss, there are 9.9s, but they're extremely rare, especially from books that kids played with, et cetera. Now, what I did, differently than kids back then again, I had a collective forethought, for whatever reason is, I bought two copies of a lot of the books. So what I did was I would buy one copy to read and I would buy one copy to collect and to save, and I did that with a lot of these books.
Speaker 2:That's pretty great foresight for a kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I just my mom said that recently. She's like I don't know how you thought of that, but yeah, I just always had that in the back of my head. Look how they pack this. It's super bubble mailer thing. It's awesome like wow, I'm not throwing this all of them in there together.
Speaker 1:No, there's two, there's another bubble mailer thing, so in this one there's three books in this one, um, I already see one of the grades, so I'll try to, um, I'll. So I'll try to not see them as I go, so that we'll kind of see the grade together. So this first book is Amazing Spider-Man 301. Now, amazing Spider-Man 301, what you Let me take it out of the plastic, I can't really see it on there Amazing Spider-Man 301,1.
Speaker 1:What is popular, famous about it is is the comic right after 300. What is 300, you asked him. Well, 300 is the first appearance of venom. Who doesn't know venom? Um, it has a cover with 300 all over in red. It looks similar to this, but spider-man has a black costume and three. So todd mcfarlane, when he signed on to the spider-man comic, he's like I want to get rid of the black costume, I don't like the black costume. I think spider-man should be in his red iconic costume.
Speaker 1:Um shorter, who developed it, who first introduced the costume in the comic book I'm about to show you. After this, um said I really like the black costume, I don't want to get rid of it. So they came up with a solution of developing Venom, which is a symbiote, who the costume leaves. There's a spoiler alert in 300. There is Peter Parker is in a church and the bells ring and the costume can't deal with the sound vibrations and leaves. And the bells ring and the costume can't deal with the sound vibrations and leaves. If you've watched the venom movie, you know this leaves peter parker and goes into eddie brock, who is venom, who's venom's human alter ego. And so this by tom hardy in the movies, tom hardy, great tom hardy.
Speaker 1:Um, this comic came right after that. And so what? Uh, todd mFarlane, who's probably, in my opinion, the best artist ever to work on Spider-Man, without a doubt, spawn. He did later on. Um, he said well, I'm going to redo the 300 cat cover, but this time I'm going to have a white background, I'm going to have Spider-Man in his old classic costume, and that's what this is. Um, the real one.
Speaker 1:Um, now, if you're going to collect Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man the comics to collect you're going to see three of them right now. Another one is on the way 300, I just got graded and that's on the way. It should be here. Probably next We'll have the next show, we'll show 300 off, but you should have 298, which is the first book Spider-Man McFarlane worked on. 299, which is the first cameo of Eddiedie brock and which would be venom. 300, which is probably one which is the biggest collecting key of the 1980s, which is the comic that's coming in. 301, um, so the grade 9.0 is the grade on that book. I would have liked to see it better, but you know it's so crazy seeing the book in and uh, there's a back of it to see the book.
Speaker 2:Nine's pretty solid, though right.
Speaker 1:It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's all right. So once you get into the nines, it's considered high grade. Um, but where you get in the nines is it does matter. Um, condition is as with sports cards, as we've talked about. Condition is just as important with comics as it is with baseball cards. I'm checking the slab to make sure that there's no damage, because sometimes they damage the slab. I just want to make sure the slab is okay. Looks beautiful in here. Wow, that's so cool. Yeah, so condition is important and and and and like. So, for example, with Spider-Man, amazing spider-man 300, the difference between a 9.4 and a 9.6 can be like eight, nine hundred dollars. So it does matter um to me. I'm never selling it. This is like you know. These are some of these books, some of the books I am selling, but the spider-mans are not going, not for sale.
Speaker 2:Sorry folks, if you're asking, those are not going to be sold um, speaking of another book that's not going to be sold.
Speaker 1:This is a very important book, um, for me. This is so. Jim shooter came up with a great series called secret wars, um, and it was a 12-part series, um based on uh wars that were happening on outside the universe in a different part of the world it's different part of the universe and ep and book eight. He came up with this idea that he, spider-man, was going to get an alien costume and this is the first time that he was supposed to be shown in the alien costume and ended up. This book got delayed to December of that year and Amazing Spider-Man 252 came up, came out first, which wasn't supposed to be the first book. That ends up being the first book with the black costume which I have, which is going to get graded too, but this is one of the most important keys of that time as well. Um, it's uh spidey in this black costume and I don't know if you know. You know this, charlie, I know you know this, but there is a movie coming out secret wars, oh yes great 9.6.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good one that's a nice one that's a nice grade, uh, but there is a movie coming out.
Speaker 2:I need to be better at revealing. It got pushed back right To like early 27,. Maybe.
Speaker 1:It did, but I have all 12 of these issues. I have the whole series, so you know I'm going to have everyone graded before the movie comes out. Yeah, the issues other than 8 might be for sale. Yeah, I'm losing my microphone. The issues other than eight definitely might be for sale. Uh, we'll see. But yeah, this next book will be for sale eventually, but not right now because it's on a down fall, but this one will be. This is not a spider-man book. Surprise, surprise, uh, this book is new mutants 87 and new mutants 87. Do you know what the significance of new mutants 87?
Speaker 2:is that basically the logan movie?
Speaker 1:no, it's not the logan, that's wolverine series, or the weapon x is the logan movie. But this is the first appearance of cable, the character of cable oh, okay um, and it's not as big as like.
Speaker 1:So new mutants 98 I don't own, and I'm going to tell you why I don't own that in a second um, um, and I don't regret not owning it and I'll tell you why. Um, but this book it's wild to see this in the case um is the first appearance of cable. I did have all of them, including, and I'll tell you why 98 is important. But yeah, so 9.2, that grade makes sense to me, looking at the back of the book for sure, see, a lot of these grades could be improved if I pressed and cleaned them. But I don't have the money for that. But I can take a 9.2 in this book, without a doubt.
Speaker 1:Um, so, real quick, the story that I wanted to share uh, new mutants 98, I, I, um, it's the first appearance of. Uh, deadpool talk about a big issue. Um, I don't own that anymore because back when I was a classroom teacher, back before that really blew up and deadpool movie was the thing I had a student to really overcome a lot of odds and a lot of um, he just had a tough time in high school and as a graduation gift I gave him that issue big gift. Um, cause. That book I don't know if you know is worth like $2,000 now.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Not about the money, but he loved. He was so into Deadpool, loved Deadpool everything that he ever came to school I was his mentor too. Everything he ever brought to school you know the book bag everything was always Deadpool, deadpool, deadpool. And I'm like you know what? I have a gift for you, but I'm not going to tell you what it is until the end of the school year. But you have to really push it through your senior year, and he did, and I gave it to him, and so that's why I don't own that that particular book. I do own a lot of the other issues of new mutants, but not that's awesome good reason not to own it. But yeah, all right. So we're going into the other package of books.
Speaker 2:There's three more books to look at um and so you had a nine, a nine six. What was the other one, A nine four?
Speaker 1:nine two. I didn't get any nine fours in this batch. Um, oh, wow, okay, all right, here we go. Another non Spider-Man book. This book will also be. This book will absolutely be for sale. But, um, this is my only DC book in a bunch. We have a DC book. It's Batman, the Vengeance of Bane. You know why this book is significant.
Speaker 2:First time he introduces Bane.
Speaker 1:First ever Bane comic book. Yes, first time with Bane. Very good, ding, ding ding. Charlie gets the award. I took a logical guess with the big bane on the cover um, let's look at the grade, because I do want to sell this. Um, oh, 9.6, that's good, that's another 9.6 nice this.
Speaker 1:This book will absolutely be for sale and I do see, um, the interesting thing about one of the interesting things about this book is that it's um square bound, which is a very tough binding for a comic book because it's usually glued together so it's kind of tough to kind of hold together and it's in great shape. It's a look how beautiful that looks in the slab. It's hard to see it in the zoom, but it really does look nice. Um, yeah, I'm impressed with that. I'm happy with that, for sure. Um, so beautiful the comic book covers look so beautiful on on, uh, on a slab, in a slab.
Speaker 2:Um, all right so yeah, they do look really nice ready for the next one, here we go.
Speaker 1:I hope I'm not boring the audience out there with my comic book opening here. We have two more left. Yeah, two more left, all right. Next one up is let's take it out of the package. We have amazing spider-man number 299. This is the cameo appearance of eddie brock. Um, as a matter of fact it says it venom cameo in the back of the book. So the last page has a little sneak preview, like he's coming and it shows a picture of venom. So let's see what we did.
Speaker 2:9.2, all right, not bad all of them so far have been nine or higher, nine or nine, two, nine twos and two nine sixes exactly what's significant about this is you see that barcode, that significance that signifies it's a newsstand edition.
Speaker 1:Back in the 80s, um, there were comic book stores that sold comic books, but if you bought it off a newsstand it would have a barcode attached to it. These are rarer and they're more valuable than the direct edition in the same grade. So a 9.2 direct would cost less money than this book because new stands, as you can imagine, there were just kids buying books to read and they wouldn't survive as long and they weren't produced as much. So it's a 9.2 new stands, not bad.
Speaker 2:Very, very, very solid Again amazing Spider-Man.
Speaker 1:It's a 9.2 newsstand. It's not bad, very, very, very solid. Again, amazing spider-man 300 that I'm going to show next time. It's also a newsstand copy, that's. That's pretty cool. All right, we got one more and it is an amazing spider-man book and8. And significance of this book is the very first spider-man book that todd mcfarland worked on. Todd mcfarland, of course we talked about what an amazing artist he is, and this book has a 9.6 white pages. All these are white pages. You could have not white pages. The white pages are more valuable because the pages yellow over time. So these are all white page books. Um, and I'm, I'm, I'm very satisfied with these, um, with these grades. I think, uh, they're worth what they said and I'm very happy with them. And, uh, these the last time I saw these were in Chicago at the national, and here they are in slabs in my house.
Speaker 2:So, it's quite quite a difference. In a couple weeks they look great so awesome man.
Speaker 1:I, I just, oh, I, I'm very satisfied to do this and to put them in a slab for sure. Um, if you're thinking about it, if you're a comic book fan and you have old comic books, definitely consider, um, getting them graded if they're, if it's worth to do that. Um, I do have other books that I'm going to have graded if it's worth to do that. I do have other books that I'm going to have graded soon, just for either resale or for collecting. They're just good to have as collectibles as well, and, yeah, I'm very happy with that. All right, do you have anything else you'd like to add, buddy, or talk about? No, I think we covered it. I think so too. This has been, uh, it's been fun. I I miss talking to you as often as we used to, but we got, we, we got, we're working with what we have and we have the beautiful, wonderful, handsome Dylan and Rosie, and, uh, we're making things happen and I'm happy about that.
Speaker 2:And hopefully our, we, our teams continue trending upwards-ish.
Speaker 1:I hope so, ish. I like the way you kind of put the ish in there.
Speaker 2:It's baseball you know you go four and three in a seven-game week and people will be unhappy.
Speaker 1:You know, like your last dance, we'll see. All right, this has been Around the Bases. Bases, the pop culture and sports podcast with your host. Turn this emr, and I'm sim sternberg. Until next time, go cubs, go mets, let's go bills and bears. Have a great week, everyone. You.
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